RLn 8-19-21

Perversion of the recall process could bring reform — if California survives it

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By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

Buscaino staff get into physical confrontations with homeless rights activists p. 2

Leave No Soldier Behind Veterans for Peace made it their mission to bring deported

[See Beyond 9/14, p. 8]

veterans back to U.S. soil

By Hunter Chase, Community News Reporter United States military veterans who are not citizens can be deported — they often are — and it can be very difficult for them to return to this country.

“The only way they can legally come back at the moment is die,” said Michael Lindley, a member of Veterans for Peace at the Aug. 2 meeting of San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice. “Then they can come back and be buried in the United States.”

The problem started with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1997, said Jan Ruhman, president of the San Diego chapter of Veterans for Peace, and the former operation coordinator for the Deported Veterans Advocacy Project. The bill took criminal offenses that were too minor to be a cause for deportation, such as state-level misdemeanors, and

turned them into aggravated felonies.

Since then, about 4,000 to 5,000 veterans have been deported each year. This doesn’t just include veterans from more recent wars, like Iraq or Afghanistan, but it goes all the way back to Vietnam vets.

“It tied the hands of judges,” Ruhman said. “They had no judicial discretion. They could not do anything, other than gavel down if ICE sent them a referral.”

The judges cannot consider anything from the defendant’s life except the crime he committed, including whether he’s a veteran.

“I’ve actually sat in these courts and heard the judge put the gavel down and say, ‘I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do, but I want to thank you for your service,” Ruhman said. “What a slap in the face that would be.”

The act does not have a statute of limitations.

Manuel Valenzuela said that he and his brother, Valentin Valenzuela, are Vietnam veterans who have been facing deportation proceedings since 2009, due to charges of drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest that were filed more than 10 years prior.

“It’s not right,” Manuel Valenzuela said. “We were out fighting for this country, had to kill for this country, to be shot at for this country. And then be thrown away like we’re trash, we’re nothing.”

The two brothers have been protesting around the country and a documentary about them, American Exile, will debut later this year. Manuel has met with Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, [See Leave No Soldier, p. 4] 1

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Northern Soul pioneer Nolan Porter: In the wake of a giant p. 9

incapacitated. It would certainly encourage other ongoing GOP efforts to undermine majority rule — voter suppression laws, partisan gerrymandering, even increased physical violence.

If Newsom does survive, however, there’s invigorated interest — and strong public support — for major reforms to the recall process... and perhaps even the initiative, too.

Ten candidates qualify for Carson special election seats p. 5

On the bear: Gubernatorial candidates Kevin Faulconer and Larry Elder. Standing: Gubernatorial candidate John Cox. Graphic by Suzanne Matsumiya

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

n 2018, Gavin Newsom defeated John Cox in the California governor’s race with 62% of votes cast, the biggest victory for a non-incumbent governor since 1930, and the first time ever that Democrats had won three consecutive gubernatorial elections. But now, recent polling shows he could become just the second governor to be recalled — and replaced by a Republican getting 20% of the vote or less. And how much damage a Republican governor could do in California and beyond — especially as the COVID-19 Delta variant still rages — is difficult to imagine.

It could turn the state into a Florida-style COVID-19 basket case — where the case rate recently was almost five times California’s. It could wreck havoc with our efforts to fight climate change, tear the state apart with Donald Trump-style executive orders (regardless of their legality) and even tip the balance of power in the U.S. Senate — derailing President Joe Biden’s agenda — should Dianne Feinstein die or become

Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 40 Years

Anger Management and Homelessness

Buscaino staff keep getting into physical confrontations with homeless rights activists

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

As Joe Buscaino pursues a kinder, gentler homeless sweeps agenda to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, his staff looks increasingly like the brutish, thuggish bullies of people without homes that his campaign has been characterized to be.

On Aug. 16, Buscaino announced his plan to introduce a resolution the next day that would prohibit sidewalk camping around every Los Angeles Unified School District in the City of Los Angeles. He made the announcement outside Larchmont Elementary School in Council District 13. This is the second anti-camping motion that has been introduced to the city council in as many weeks.

Buscaino said he chose this location because their classes start on Wednesday while most other schools started Tuesday. He said he did not want to be disruptive on the first day of school.

StreetWatch LA, a community activist group opposed to the recent ordinance change that would make it easier to arrest homeless individuals who refuse to go into offered housing and restrict camping in public spaces, was accosted by Buscaino’s senior aide and communications director, Branimir Kvartuc.

The kerfuffle began when Kvartuc grabbed the sign of a woman standing near the councilman.

That resulted in some pushing and shouting as the councilman told Kvartuc to “back off.”

Reportedly, Kvartuc later said his intention was to move the sign so it wasn’t blocking Buscaino’s face during the news conference. He explained that the sign broke when the woman jerked back from him grabbing it. The confrontation disrupted and ended the news conference with the

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it’s what we saw today or the violence of criminalizing poverty and homelessness.”

Stevie later filed a battery report with the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD is investigating the incident.

This isn’t the first time Kvartuc had to be told to calm down. A similar scenario went down a few months ago on April 15, in which fellow Buscaino aide, Jacob Haik, had to diffuse a Kvartuc tirade against StreetWatch LA. The 5’9 Kvartuc got on his tippy-toes to force a much taller StreetWatch LA activist and Los Feliz resident, Jeffrey Perez de Leon, back. Kvartuc was apparently working on a campaign ad near an encampment on Berendo in Los Feliz far from his own backyard in the 15th District.

Perez de Leon said StreetWatch LA had been watching over the encampment’s residents in light of efforts to shut the site down Jacob Haik, left, aide to Joe Buscaino, watches as senior aide and communictions director, Branimir Kvartuc confronts Jef- regardless of whether the residents got help frey Perez de Leon, a StreetWatch LA activist. Photo taken and shelter or not. from Street Watch LA’s Twitter page When he saw Buscaino filming what looked like a promo for his campaign, Perez de councilman left at the podium.

The homeless advocate holding the sign, who Leon’s only thought was to call Buscaino out on identified herself as Stevie, said the incident sym- using his neighborhood as a backdrop for his cambolizes Buscaino’s aggressive approach to the paign for homeless sweeps.

Eventually, a police officer who pulled up in a city’s homelessness issue.

“A representative for Joe Buscaino pulled squad car diffused the situation with Haik’s help.

Napoleon Complex and short man jokes aside, down my sign and on many cameras pushed me,” Stevie said. “And then the press conference ended, these videos seem to show that it takes very little to provoke Kvartuc. because he assaulted me.”

“It’s more violence from Joe Buscaino. It’s Visit www.randomlengthsnews.com to see the two alterwhat we’ve come to expect. Joe Buscaino loves to cations. displace people and loves to be violent. Whether

Marymount California University Merges with Saint Leo University

By Marisol Cruz, Editorial Intern

The board of trustees of Marymount California University and Saint Leo University announced July 29 that they had voted to sign an agreement to integrate Marymount California into the latter university, located in St. Leo, Florida.

“Faced with the mounting pressures that are affecting small, private liberal arts colleges, MCU considered several options to continue its long tradition of offering a teaching-focused and student-centered education,” Marymount stated on its website.

Marymount California University has been afflicted with troubles in recent years, especially regarding finances. In 2016, the WASC Senior College and University Commission renewed Marymount California’s accreditation for six years. However, in a commission action letter sent after the accreditation visit, the organization expressed “serious concerns” regarding enrollment projections and financial management.

In 2017, Marymount California University abruptly closed its Lake County campus in Lucerne after its opening about four years

prior. A year later, the university appointed trustee Brian Marcotte as president, replacing Lucas Lamadrid, who left the position for conflicting reasons amid sexual harassment lawsuits.

In early 2021, Marymount California University applied for the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration database, the university was approved for almost $2 million in loans.

As stated by Jeffrey Senese, president of Saint Leo University, Saint Leo will assume Marymount’s debt, currently estimated to be $3.7 million. Saint Leo would also assume control of Marymount’s buildings and property, which are valued at $60 million.

Saint Leo has had its fair share of troubles in recent years. In the U.S. Department of Education’s reports, the university shuttered some of its education centers in early 2021 due to dwindling enrollment numbers during the pandemic.

Although Marymount’s new ownership means changes in its name and brand, it will not become a branch campus; rather, it will be an “additional

location of Saint Leo University, under its administration and governance.”

“We expect plenty of new opportunities for students, including new academic programs, majors and experiential learning ... Even with the combined institutions, students will still call the Rancho Palos Verdes campus their university home and learn from the same supportive and committed faculty and staff,” the university wrote in an announcement.

In Rancho Palos Verdes, the Community Development Department Staff will be meeting with Marymount’s representatives to discuss the merger process, such as any amendments to the existing entitlements.

As it is early in the process, Senior Planner Amy Seeraty shared that Marymount representatives “haven’t proposed anything yet … and [the department staff] haven’t even looked into the permit that would involve amendments to the entitlement.”

As such, it also remains uncertain if this merger will affect residents who live in the surrounding Rancho Palos Verdes area.

The process of merging includes receiving accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. This process may extend until January 2023. “[U]ntil then, Marymount intends to continue to operate as they have in the past at their Rancho Palos Verdes campus,” stated an administrative report from the city.

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area CD 15 Redistricting Community Meeting

The Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission or LACCRC invites you to a Council District 15 community public hearing Aug. 18.

The purpose of redistricting is to redraw the maps that impact your community and to ensure you have the power to determine fair and inclusive representation in your council district. Learn and take action so that your neighborhood gets treated fairly and gets the resources it needs and deserves.

Upon registration, you will receive a Zoom link that will allow you to join the public hearing online from your phone, computer or other device. Ask about translation services if needed when you register.

For more information about the city’s redistricting process, visit laccrc2021.org.

Time: 6 p.m. Aug. 18 Details: RSVP to www.docs.google.com/forms/ redistricting-meeting; 213-263-5765.

L.B. Emergency Rental Assistance Application Period Reopened

Long Beach has reopened the Long Beach Emergency Rental Assistance Program or LBERAP for qualified landlords and tenants to apply for pandemic-related rental assistance. The reopening of the program is due to an additional $13.1 million the city received in state and federal funding, increasing the program budget to $64 million.

All LB-ERAP applications can be submitted via the program’s online information and service portal available on the LB-ERAP webpage, which also provides details about the program’s various income and eligibility guidelines.

Details: 833-358-5372; www.longbeach.gov/ emergency-rental-assistance-program

CSU Dominguez Hills Holds COVID-19 Vaccination Pop-Up Clinic

The walk-in clinics will take place on two Thursdays, Aug. 26 and Sept. 16, in CSUDH’s Extended Education building. A team of Rite Aid health professionals will administer Pfizer vaccines (first or second doses) and single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Appointments are encouraged but not required.

For more information, visit csudh.edu/together/vaccine.

Time: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 26 and Sept. 16 Details: To schedule an appointment, visit www. vaccination.as.me.

Community Grants Workshop

If your government agency or 501(c)(3) nonprofit or health agency is considering a project to generate solar power or heat, it may qualify for funding through the Port of Long Beach Community Grants Program.

A workshop covering how to put together a proposal will be held Aug. 26. Those who cannot attend can email questions to grants@polb.com.

The Community Grants Program is a more than $46 million effort designed to help those in the community who are most vulnerable to portrelated impacts.

Guidelines for the three programs of the Community Grants Program can be found on the port website at www.polb.com/grants.

Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Details: Register, polb.webex.com/communitygrants

County Libraries Eliminate Late Fines

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Aug. 10, unanimously approved a proposal authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn to immediately eliminate late fines from LA County Libraries.

Hahn’s motion instructs LA County Librarian Skye Patrick to waive all fines and fees for overdue books and other library materials, effective immediately. It also instructs the county librarian to work with the county’s auditor-controller, County Counsel and treasurer-tax collector to waive all existing fees for library patrons as well as write off the library’s accounts receivable.

Collecting fines for overdue library materials was originally implemented as a source of revenue for the LA County Library system — but, presently, these fines make up less than 1% of library revenue.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

August 19 - September 1, 2021

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[Leave No Soldier, from p. 1]

Leave No Soldier

The Work of Veterans For Peace

Veterans for Peace has been able to provide deported soldiers around the world with softer landings, especially in Mexico. They give physical support to deported veterans, provide access to counselors, assistance with pension benefits and with claiming disabilities.

“They’re deported homeless, [with] no ID, no money and no telephone,” Ruhman said. “Many of them, they pick themselves up, but many are not able to, for whatever reason.”

Robert Vivar is co-director of Unified U.S. Deported Veterans which is in Tijuana, Mexico, next to the border. He started working for the organization in 2017. It was a new office installed

by Veterans for Peace and an official chapter of the organization.

“I had already been working with Veterans for Peace,” Vivar said. “Their idea was to locate an office right by the border to intercept veterans that were being deported, to offer them an opportunity to be productive members of the community.”

Vivar said that during his time working for

has recently been in contact with vets in India, Haiti and Canada.

Many members of the armed forces will apply for U.S. citizenship while on active duty.

However, having to move frequently can make the process difficult. “You get moved around from base to base and your mail does not always follow you accurately,” Vivar said.

Veterans for Peace wants to solve this

the center, he has helped at least 50 deported veterans.

“When we have the opportunity to make contact with a veteran before being deported, we do everything within our power to try to stop their removal,” Vivar said. “However, that has not been a success story. The veterans that we have been in touch with before their deportation ended up still getting deported.”

Their main area of work is veterans who have already been deported. They help veterans who have been sent to anywhere in the world. Vivar

problem by amending the U.S. Code 1101(a) (22), so that when non-citizens take the oath of enlistment, they will be considered nationals of the United States. This would be retroactive to completion of basic training. They would not become citizens just because they are nationals, but it would be a lot harder to deport them. Vivar also would like to see a streamlined process making it easier for them to become citizens upon completion of basic training.

“How much more can you ask a person to

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Graphic by Terelle Jerricks

Joe Biden and he even sent a letter to Donald Trump; none of them have been able to help.

Four or five congressional bills that would prohibit the deportation of veterans have been introduced, but none have made it out of committee, Ruhman said. However, the Biden administration recently announced plans to prevent the deportation of veterans and bring back the ones that are currently in other countries.

Lindley has participated in activism as well, including the No Soldier Left Behind program, which takes murals of deported veterans and displays them around the country.

“These murals have been put up in Compton, Central Valley, Seattle, Phoenix … El Paso, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, San Diego, Portland, Washington, D.C.; Baja, California and New Mexico,” Lindley said.

San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Freedom will hold a press conference in San Pedro about deported veterans on Sept. 5 as part of Peace Week, a peaceful alternative to Fleet Week.

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[See Soldier, p. 15]

Action Delayed As Questions Cloud Emissions Control System Grant

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

“This is a really good project,” Port of LA Director of Environmental Management Chris Cannon told POLA’s board at its Aug. 5 meeting.

He was talking about a proposed at-berth emissions capture-and-control system for tanker vessels, and requesting $333,334 as the port’s contribution to secure a $9.5 million grant from the California Air Resources Board.

But two long-time community environmental activists raised strong objections, and the board postponed action, seeking more information before reaching a decision.

At issue is both the capability of the company receiving the grant, STAX Engineering, which has never built anything before, as well as the selection process involved in choosing it over a competitor, AEG, whose AMECS system has been in use for years, and for whom members of the STAX team had previously worked.

Jesse Marquez, executive director of the Coalition For A Safe Environment, gave a glimpse into the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s sudden, unexplained, last-minute shift from initiating the grant process with AEG, to selecting STAX and then scrambling to make it look more qualified. He listed a number of additional problems as well. “Part of the technology they are using was stolen from their prior employer — three of the STAX engineering

owners or principals are ex-employees of AEG and ACTI [AEG’s predecessor], so there’s a legal conflict right there,” Marquez said.

“What is the rationale of giving $10 million of public funds to a company that has never made anything?” asked Janet Gunter. “Its competitor, AMECS, offers a proven trusted system for less than half, and is currently being assisted and supported through reorganization by WBCT [actually LBCT], the largest terminal operator in the U.S.” She also raised numerous conflict of interest questions, and stressed that the Port of Long Beach had tabled consideration of its financial support.

“The two speakers make some excellent points,” Commissioner Diane Middleton said.

“I’m very concerned whether or not a contract is going to a company that may not be able to execute it, and I don’t want to be cavalier and say, ‘Not our problem! We didn’t hire them.’”

“We don’t know much about STAX,” Commissioner Ed Renwick said. “There’s just a lot of unknowns. The last thing I want is to approve something that we haven’t vetted.”

In the end, the board voted unanimously to table the matter, pending further information regarding the questions raised.

The Port of Long Beach is scheduled to consider the matter on Aug. 23.

Ten Candidates Qualify for Special Election to Fill Two Vacancies

By Joseph Baroud, Reporter

Ten candidates are competing to fill two vacancies in Carson’s city government — the fourth district’s council seat and the position of city clerk — in a special election in November. The openings were created when former fourth district representative Lula Davis-Holmes was elected mayor and ex-city clerk Donesia Gause-Aldana resigned to become city clerk in Riverside.

The fourth district is in the southern part of Carson, with the exception of a long finger that stretches from 223rd Street to Turnmont encompassing the South Bay Pavillion, the fourth is bordered by Main Street to the west, Lomita boulevard to the South and the Union Pacific rail line to the east.

The winner among the five candidates will complete the final three years of Davis-Holmes’ term. Only one has experience as an elected official in Carson — Michael Mitoma, CEO of Parking Space Technology, LLC, who served on the city council from 1987-1997. The others — Freddie Gomez, Arleen Rojas, Isais Pulido, and Dr. Sharma Henderson — are taking their first shot at municipal politics.

Gomez has resided in Carson for 50 years.

He is a director of client engagement and navigation services for the nonprofit organization Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles. He says that residents deserve humble, honest and committed leaders who will listen, learn and lead based on the best interests for the people of Carson.

Pulido was born and raised in Carson. With a MBA in Business Administration, he currently works alongside the council as an aide doing casework, community relations and resolving constituent service requests. He says that he stands for public safety first, protecting children and senior citizens Rojas is a graduate of Carson High School and is with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Henderson will give it another go after unsuccessfully running for a council seat in 2018.

Of the five candidates running for city clerk, only Vera DeWitt has experience in Carson government; more than 30 years ago she served five years on the city council, the last in 1992. The other city clerk candidates are Jeffry Caballero, Myla Rahman, Monette Gavino and Falea’ana Meni.

Caballero is a federal tax and immigration attorney, although he passed the Uniform Bar Exam for the Vermont State Bar, he is not licensed in California. Caballero claims the UBE allows him to practice immigration law in California, but the exam’s website does not list California as one of the jurisdictions the exam is accepted.

Meni ran for mayor in the most recent election and will be running for city clerk now. Monette Gavino, a special education teacher who was employed with the city in the past will be running as well. District Chief of Staff Myla Rahman who has been working for the state legislature for almost eight years now will also be running.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

August 19 - September 1, 2021

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Afghanistan —

Fall of Saigon Déjà Vu Will we ever learn the mistakes of empire?

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Several years ago I was standing in front of the art deco Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, France and was admiring the block-long park across the street with lush palm trees and cascading water feature.

It looked so serene, even peaceful.

Then I walked over to the foot of the monument to read its significance.

In French it read, which didn’t need translation, Le Square des Anciens Combattants d’Indochine. This was France’s memorial to the veterans of the French war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia which they ignobly lost at the climactic battle of Dien Bien Phu before handing off the war to you already know it — U.S.A. This park sans memorial signage didn’t even look like they lost the war.

The French, like Americans, have an incurable ability to never admit defeat even when it’s too obvious to ignore and even worse to continue making the same mistake over and over again expecting a different outcome — the saying about this being a certain kind of insanity comes to mind. Twenty years of occupying a country after we invaded and conquered it in a matter of a few weeks then pretending we were going to elevate these people to our kind of Western democracy only exhibits the kind of hubris that we Americans are known for. People, we just can’t shove democracy down the throats of anyone who doesn’t wish to fight for it themselves and adopt it to their own culture.

We knew very little about either the culture nor history of Vietnam and we know even less about Afghanistan. This is evident in our perpetuating the very same kind of mistakes in both countries and using similar military tactics even in Iraq. In this we are not alone.

I was at a café while in Paris that year when a Lebanese expat engaged me in a rather accusatory tone about our wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. My French being deficient, but through the kind intervention of a sober interpreter, I informed my new friend that I neither supported nor voted for the American president who started these wars. And then reminded him of how Americans learned most of their mistakes from the French and the British. We parted, having a greater appreciation of each other.

Going back as far as Alexander the Great, who invaded what is today Afghanistan in

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330 B.C. as part of war against Persia, he couldn’t hold it. In one account Alexander lost almost as many men in one bloody day as he had in the four years it took him to conquer all the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Iran.

Even the Russians who tried it before us couldn’t hold the country. One Soviet-era veteran, former sergeant Igor Grigorevich, 46, quoted in a 2008 article in the Canadian Globe and Mail, said, “It’s impossible to conquer the Afghans ... Alexander the Great couldn’t do it, the British couldn’t do it, we couldn’t do it and the Americans won’t do it ... no one can.”

One of the foremost American critics of our militarism is former U.S. Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a professor in history and author of many books on military history and foreign policy. He wrote back in 2019, “The central lesson for the U.S. in this long and futile conflict, compounded by our experience in the Iraq War, is plain: The proper mission of the U.S. military is to deter and to defend — a statement that ought to be inscribed over the main entrance to the Pentagon, if not added to the oath of office taken by the commander in chief.”

Bacevich has been a persistent, vocal critic of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, calling the conflicts “catastrophic failures.” In March 2007, he described George W. Bush’s endorsement of such “preventive wars” as “immoral, illicit, and imprudent.”

This is a lesson that shouldn’t have been repeated and yet for the generation that came of age after 9/11 and during this “longest war” there is a question that still needs to be asked again, “How did we the American people ever let this happen?” It’s the same question my generation keeps asking every time a president wraps himself in the flag and beats the drums of war. And then I think of that long black memorial wall in our nation’s capital and the dwindling number of Vietnam Veterans who come every year to salute and mourn.

Bacevich has perhaps the best final words on this, “Never again should it be the purpose of American forces to overthrow regimes in distant lands with vague expectations of being able to install a political order more to our liking. That way lies only more ‘endless wars.’”

When will we ever learn?

“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it.”

—Mark Twain Vol. XLII : No. 17

Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.

​​Facing Prison for Fighting Chevron Rights attorney Donziger pays price for defending Indigenous in Ecuador poisoned by oil

By Greg Palast, Investigative Journalist

It was back in 2007, when I found him in his thatched stilt home in the rainforest. Criollo told me his 5-year-old son had jumped into a swimming hole, covered with an enticing shine.

The shine was oil sludge, illegally dumped. His son came up vomiting blood, then dropped dead in the chief’s arms.

I followed him to the courthouse in the dusty roustabout town of Lago Agrio (Bitter Lake) where, with a sheaf of papers, Criollo sought justice for his son. Behind Criollo, the court clerks, in their white shirts and ties, were giggling and grinning at each other, nodding toward this “indio” painted up and half naked, thinking he can file a suit against a giant. A giant named Chevron.

In 2011, they stopped laughing. That’s when an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay Criollo and other indigenous co-plaintiffs $9.5 billion. The courts found that Chevron’s Texaco operation had illegally dumped 16 billion gallons of deadly oil waste. What the gigglers didn’t know is that the chief had a secret weapon: Steven Donziger, a U.S. attorney, classmate of Barack Obama at Harvard law, who gave up everything — literally everything — to take on Criollo’s case.

It’s been a decade, and Chevron still hasn’t paid a dime. But Donziger has paid big time: For the last two years, he’s been under house arrest, longer than any American in history never convicted of a crime.

But weeks ago, he was convicted of contempt by a judge who denied him a jury. (The

Columnists/Reporters Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen Melina Paris Staff Reporter james@randomlengthsnews.com Hunter Chase Staff Reporter Send Calendar Items to: Assoc. Publisher/Production 14days@randomlengthsnews.com Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya Photographers Arturo Garcia-Ayala, Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor Raphael Richardson, Chris Villanueva Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Contributors Joseph Baroud, Mark Friedman, Senior Editor Ari LeVaux, Greggory Moore, Iracema Paul Rosenberg Navarro, Greg Palast paul.rosenberg@ randomlengthsnews.com Cartoonists Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Internship Program Director Matt Wuerker Zamná Àvila

Constitution? Faggedaboudit.) And on Oct. 1, this contemptible judge will sentence Donziger, and could put him behind bars.

Who was the prosecutor? Not the U.S. government, but Chevron’s law firm. The firstever criminal prosecution by a U.S. corporation.

Say what? I can’t make this up.

Chevron set out to destroy Donziger, to make an example of a human rights lawyer that dares take on the petroleum pirates.

It filed suits against Donziger and the Cofan and found a former tobacco industry lawyer, judge Lewis Kaplan, to find Donziger in contempt for refusing to turn over his cell phone and computer to Chevron — an unprecedented attack on attorney-client privilege. To give Chevron the names of indigenous activists in South America can be a death sentence.

When Donziger said he’d appeal, the judge charged him with criminal contempt — that’s simply unprecedented. But a far more dangerous precedent was set. When federal prosecutors in New York laughed off and rejected Kaplan’s demand that they charge Donziger, the judge appointed Chevron’s lawyers, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, to act as the prosecutors!

So far, 60 Nobel Laureates, several U.S. Senators and Congresspeople, and a who’s who of human rights groups have publicly registered their horror at this new corporate prosecution. (Note: Gibson Dunn represented me. Never again. I’ve [See Chevron, p. 7]

Design/Production Suzanne Matsumiya, Brenda Lopez

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Community Alert

Join A Virtual Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing

SACRAMENTO — The California State Board of Equalization, or BOE, will hold its annual Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Hearing via teleconference on Aug. 24.

Taxpayers and stakeholders are invited to provide comments on items described in the BOE’s Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate’s annual report, which can be accessed at www.taxpayers-rightsadvocates-annual-report Comments can be submitted in advance via the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights hearing appearance sheet www.hearing-appearance-sheet-form to MeetingInfo@boe.ca.gov or dial toll-free to 1-877-226-8189, access code 4898770# on the day of, to present during the hearing.

Time: 10 a.m. Aug. 24 Details: How to participate: The virtual hearing will be livestreamed on the BOE website. https://www.boe.ca.gov/ meetings/ Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate’s webpage at www.boe.ca.gov/tra

RANDOMLetters Appreciation For Judy Baca

I’m very touched in my heart and mind to read the article on Judy Baca “the Mexicana artist” of Los…. I met her at SPARC/Venice 13 meeting back when I was the Westminster Senior Citizens Director LA Recrecreation & Parks also at handball courts in Oakwood Recreation Center. She loved working with the homies & home girls at the RC, her love of barrio art was so cool and visionary — her murals tell stories from the corazon! Paz y amor Ricardo Pulido y fam Environmentalist/Social Justice Advocate Carson

Afghan Exit

I keep hearing the blame being put on Afghanistan’s armed forces for not standing up to the Taliban by President Joe Biden.

Biden says things like the “Buck Stops Here” by Harry Truman and blames others for the airport catastrophe. Biden’s justification of pulling-out with words like, “the Afghanistan’s did not have the will to defend their country, why should we support them?”

Biden needs to go back to February 2020 in which Trump made a deal with the Taliban that limited direct military actions against the insurgents.

That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to siege key areas when Biden announced his plans to withdraw all Americans forces by the end of August.

By the way, Biden when he took office did not have to follow this deal that Trump made. It was just another bad foreign policy in which Trump made, as he was trying to make a deal with the devil.

I feel the reason the Afghanistan military did not fight the Taliban was because of the arrangement that Trump made and the Afghanistan soldiers were honoring that agreement.

Consequently, because of that deal there was poor morale, discipline and no leadership to fight the Taliban.

Biden did not recognize the red flags and for months lawmakers and advocacy groups wanted the administration to accelerate its efforts to get those that served our military out of harms way. This message went to deft ears as Biden did not listen to his advisors as to

the capabilities of the Taliban.

Why didn’t Biden learn from the pull-out of Vietnam in 1975, as he said there would not be any helicopters flying on the roof-tops of the embassy to get people out.

We now see the opposite of what he is saying, as this is exactly like Saigon or worse, which was a very sad and ugly chapter in American history.

P.S. I would appreciate it if you could address this issue in the Random Lengths newspaper.

John Winkler San Pedro

Braves Go Next

Hello Cleveland! Thanks for finally doing the right thing by

grudgingly ditching your city’s Major League Baseball franchise name “The Indians” at the end of the 2021 MLB season.

Yes, the name “The Indians” was racist as all get-out, and Cleveland’s recently retired team logo “Chief Wahoo” was even more ridiculously reprehensible than the team’s soon-to-be former moniker. But who doesn’t love the possibility of redemption for long-time losers and ultimate underdogs, like Cleveland itself.

If there is one thing that Cleveland’s MLB franchise has been consistent at since the era of World War II — back when all Americans could openly and unapologetically agree that “the

only good Nazi is a dead Nazi” it’s that Cleveland couldn’t win the World Series (except for 1948).

Maybe a new team name is just what Cleveland baseball needs.

Cleveland’s new MLB team name “The Guardians” will debut in 2022. Perhaps Atlanta will follow suit and drop their MLB franchise’s name “The Braves” before next season? “The Bandits” would be a much more appropriate choice for the city of Atlanta. (I’m pretty sure Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, and Jackie Gleason would all agree with that.)

East Bound and Down.

Jake Pickering Arcata, Calif.

Jobs. Justice. Housing.

Let’s Get it Right!

Donate or Volunteer to elect Christian to the Los Angeles City Council, District 15.

Visit www.clgforthepeople.com today.

[Chevron, from p. 6]

Taking On Chevron

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Editor’s note-As of this publication date American lawyer Steven Donziger, who was found guilty of criminal contempt after spending more than two decades trying to prove that Chevron Corp polluted Ecuador’s rainforest, has asked a Manhattan federal court for a new trial. In an Aug. 4 filing, Donziger asked Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska to toss a July verdict that found him guilty of six counts of criminal contempt, arguing that the private lawyers serving as prosecutors for the United States were serving illegally because the U.S. Dept. of Justice declined to supervise them. Chevron-Texaco still has not paid the $9.3 billion judgement to the Amazonian peoples.

Paid for by Christian L. Guzman for City Council 2022, 1329 Figueroa Place, Apt 7-12 Los Angeles, CA 90744 Additional information at ethics.lacity.org FPPC ID 1438114

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

taken the trash to the curb.)

Chevron also went after journalists, in one case, filing a complaint against the BBC Television reporter that broke the story that Chevron had destroyed key evidence in the case. I was that reporter — and survived with my job after a year of hearings. But Chevron’s prosecution did a damn good job of scaring off other journalists.

Some were scared off; some bought off. PBS NewsHour wouldn’t touch the death-by-oil story.

The official chief sponsor of the PBS NewsHour?

Chevron.

Here’s the story, broadcast by BBC and, in the U.S., by Democracy Now!, the story you won’t find on the Petroleum Broadcast System.

I’ve gone way out of my way to get ChevronTexaco’s side of the story. I finally chased them down in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. I showed them a study of the epidemic of childhood leukemia centered on where their company dumped oil sludge. Here’s their reply: “And it’s the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States?”

Texaco’s lawyer, Rodrigo Perez, was chuckling and snorting. “Scientifically, nobody has proved that crude causes cancer.”

OK, then. But what about the epidemiological study about children with cancer in the Amazon traced to hydrocarbons? The parents of the dead kids, he said, would have some big hurdles in court: “If there is somebody with cancer there, they must prove it is caused by crude or by the petroleum industry. And, second, they have to prove that it is OUR crude.” Perez leaned over with a huge grin.“Which is absolutely impossible.”

He grinned even harder. Maybe some guy eating monkeys in the jungle can’t prove it. And maybe that’s because the evidence of oil dumping was destroyed. Deliberately, by Chevron.

I passed the ChevronTexaco legal duo a document from their files labeled “Personal y confidential.” They read in silence. They stayed

silent for quite a while. Jaime Varela, Chevron’s lawyer, was wearing his tan golf pants and white shoes, an open shirt and bespoke blue blazer. He had a blow-dried bouffant hairdo much favored by the ruling elite of Latin America and skin whiter than mine, a color also favored by the elite.

Jaime had been grinning too. He read the memo. He stopped grinning. The key part says,“Todos los informes previos deben ser sacados de las oficinas “. . . Reports . . . are to be removed from the division and field offices and be destroyed.” It came from the company boss in the States, “R. C. Shields, Presidente de la Junta Principales y las del campo, y ser destruidos.”

Removed and destroyed. That smells an awful lot like an order to destroy evidence, which in this case means evidence of abandoned pits of deadly drilling residue. Destroying evidence that is part of a court action constitutes fraud.

In the United States, that would be a crime, a jail-time crime. OK, gents, you want to tell me about this document?

“Can we have a copy of this?” Varela asked me, pretending he’d never seen it before in his life.

I’ll pretend with them, if that gets me information.

“Sure. You’ve never seen this?” The ritual of innocence continued as they asked a secretary to make copies. “We’re sure there’s an explanation,” Varela said. I’m sure there is. “We’ll get back to you as soon as we find out what it is.”

I’m still waiting.

7

[Beyond 9/14, from p. 1]

Beyond 9/14

COVID foolishness

Take COVID-19 first. All top GOP candidates share some degree of COVID-19 denialism: denying the public health consensus that mandated mass vaccination is the key to controlling the pandemic, and that mask mandates are essential in the meantime wherever there’s pandemic spread. They encourage outright hostility to effectively fighting the disease on the false premise that “freedom” means an inalienable right to spread deadly disease, and that public health measures — which save millions of lives annually — are a form of tyranny.

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Cox, for example, would like to see California be more like Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned local mask mandates and is at war with local health officials and school districts with the highest COVID-19 case rates in the nation. “What we need to do is look at what other states have done. I mean I compare California to Florida,” Cox said Aug. 4 at a recall candidate debate fittingly held at the Nixon Library.

“To make the case that California got it right, you also have to make the case that all 49 other states got it wrong,” said Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, epitomizing the GOP attempt to paint California, rather than Florida, as the disastrous anti-science outlier.

“I do not favor mandates; I favor education,” said former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, attempting to strike a balanced, “reasonable” tone.

But it would only be reasonable if the virus weren’t contagious — if a single individual’s decisions not to vaccinate or mask didn’t put everyone else at risk.

“You’re not going to mandate your way out of the coronavirus,” Faulconer added. But that’s exactly what science says will do the trick. In Flor-

8

ida, more than 800 physicians wrote a letter calling on DeSantis to repeal his ban on mask mandates, writing that “Gov. DeSantis’ antisafety strategy puts people at risk, including children.”

The good news is that none of these four candidates are likely to replace Newsom.

None have led in any recent polls. The bad news is who just might: rightwing talkshow host Larry Elder, self-proclaimed “sage of South Central” who’s made a comfortable career out of saying things white conservatives love hearing from a Black man.

Elder’s ideas are profoundly unpopular, particularly in California. He opposes gun safety laws, safe and legal abortion, and the minimum wage — he says it should be “zero dollars.” He could never beat Newsom in a head-to-head two-person race. But the chaos and confusion of a recall election, where he only has to beat other losers, is custom made for his simplistic pitch mobilizing the Trump base.

The dark horse of the recall

Elder routinely claims to possess “common sense,” as a way of dismissing experts and evidence that complicate or contradict his simplistic worldview, and he easily lies about things he’s said and positions he’s held that he finds inconvenient now. “I’ve never said that climate change is a myth,” he said in an Aug. 1 KABC interview, for example. But the Internet’s Wayback Machine shows that from 2007 to 2009 his website featured a page headlined, “Debunking the Gore-Bull Warming Myth.”

On COVID-19, Elder blends in with the rest of the GOP. “I don’t support mandates for masks. I don’t support mandates for vaccines,” Elder said in that same interview. “If I’m fortunate enough to become governor, I’m going to repeal any mandates that are in place when I become governor,” he added. He didn’t say he’d try to ban local mandates, but with Elder, you can never be sure. He has a Trumpian way of jumping around on issues, while staunchly maintaining his own consistency and “common sense.”

Elder’s not just a soft denialist on COVID-19, however. He’s much the same on climate change as well. “Climate is changing, of course, the climate is always changing,” he said in that same KABC interview — a standard turn of phrase that denialists have been using for decades. But when asked if climate change was responsible for California’s wildfires, he flat-out denied what the science says.

“I’m not sure if it’s because of climate change,” Elder said. “Fires have gotten worse because of the failure of this governor to engage in sensible fire-suppression,” echoing Trump’s attacks from last summer. This ignores vast scientific literature, along with two simple facts: first, that the number of large fires in the Western U.S. had doubled between 1984 and 2015 — three years before Newsom’s election, and second, that most of California’s forests are on federal land.

Elder is similarly hostile to public education. “There are far more bad public school teachers than there are bad cops,” Elder wrote in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests last year. “So when and where can we expect the #DefundPublicEducation rallies?”

This month, the Los Angeles Times reported that in an interview, “Elder implied that he might declare a state of emergency in [See Recall, p. 13]

D

71. What follows is a story of a seemingly obscure American artist and beloved northern soul star who traversed land and ocean to find fame and triumphed in sharing the power of music.

“This was during the era of Sly and the Family Stone and he [also] had a folk thing going on,” Cross said. “Nolan had a larger community around him. I know one of his records was done entirely with Frank Zappa’s band [The Mothers] which was an interracial band. Both George Duke and Ernie Watts played with Zappa, which [at the time] was unusual. Frank Zappa fostered a unique and original way of thinking about music and Nolan was part of that larger community.”

Community Grows

In the mid-1990s Cross moved to Silver Lake, where he lived next door to and became good friends with Lee Boek.

The writer/actor was and continues to this day to be an integral part of Public Works Improvisational Theater as its artistic director. The Los Angeles-based theater is one of the great improv schools in the country that fed the casts and writers’ rooms of ’70s era shows like Saturday Night Live as well as late-night talk programs, films, podcasts, web series and sketch shows of today.

Nolan and Lee became longtime fellow collaborators who worked together in theater

and music periodically across 30 years.

Their last show together was Lee’s play Confessions of A Pulpiteer in 2019.

Lee said Nolan recorded with the best even on his own albums. The two artists started doing shows together about 1982 at The Grassy Knoll on Sunset, an underground “cabaret in the hood.”

After Nolan died, Lee said that his friend’s life story and excellent spirit needed to be told. He said Nolan deserved the credit for his music. He wrote it but never got all of his royalties, only some. Unsure on the complete details he explained Nolan’s music had someone else’s name on it. He said from early on much of his music was credited to someone else.

Nolan’s first release, titled Nolan, contained a cover of Van Morrison’s Crazy Love, which became a minor hit.

His second album Nolan, No Apologies was recorded under Gabriel Meckler’s Lizard label. Meckler helmed albums for Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night and Janis Joplin. Apparently Nolan recorded under several names; including Nolan, N.F. Porter or Frederick II. This was the cause of confusion with the original vinyl releases of Nolan’s music on the Lizard, Vulture and ABC labels.

Fast forward to 2021, in terms of Nolan’s larger community, Cross pointed to famed English DJ Giles Peterson, for teaching him a very important fact about Nolan. Cross heard Peterson pay an homage to Nolan on his BBC radio show the week that he died. It was then Cross realized Nolan’s music crossed the Atlantic and created a resurgent northern soul scene there.

“What I did know was that Nolan’s records were distributed and were very popular in Brazil,” he said.

“Nolan is someone with a unique sound [who] was celebrated in [various] pockets but for whatever reason, he always struck me in the way that Bill Withers had quite a difficult relationship to fame,” Cross said. “He was somebody that was not cut out for the record industry but that had nothing to do with his artistry. This was somebody that was extraordinary.”

Cross noted Nolan has many fans in Britain, where he travelled to after he discovered a tribute band was playing his music.

“It’s just a beautiful story about the power of music,” Cross said. “The way music can somehow, beyond marketing, beyond hype, beyond everything, [See Nolan, p. 11]

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

J and photographer Brian Cross, aka B+, during the 1990s in Los Angeles, was a crate digging vinyl collector of jazz and soul records that resulted in classic hip hop tracks — a status they’ve kept to this day. Think Ice Cube’s It Was A Good Day, which sampled The Isley Brothers’ Footsteps in the Dark or Will Smith’s Summertime which sampled Kool & The Gang’s 1974 classic Summer Madness.

These crate digging, vinyl devotees became hip hop’s griots, the keepers of musical knowledge when it came to soul, funk and R&B music — the music that sustained and inspired hip hop.

Cross, who hails from Limerick, Ireland, in a recent interview said buying these records was his casual way of participating in hip hop history. He continued to describe his encounter with Nolan Porter’s music.

“I remember seeing the Nolan record a few times and picking it up and being enamored by it,” Cross said. “It’s really an unusual thing that he was doing. I knew the records primarily because of the label they were on ­— Lizard. What Nolan was doing was really quite unique, in the sense that he was really a soul singer leaning into rock.”

Vocally, Porter’s voice was as smooth as Smokey Robinson’s but much throatier on tracks like What Would You Do If I Did That to You and Travelin’ Song.

Porter died at his Van Nuys home on Feb. 4, 2021. He was

By Melina Paris, Assistant Editor

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Left: Brian Cross. Right: Nolan North. Graphic by Brenda Lopez

9

G

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

uests finishing their meals will hear a distant and familiar sound, an innocent phrase, “thank you, baby. ” Rossmary Palatos, 52, strides across the diner floors holding a classic diner dish ready to be eaten by a loyal customer. Her blonde highlights over her Ted’s Burgers visor and dark blue-collar shirt sets her apart from the rest of the staff.

Ted’s Burgers, or Ted’s to locals, is one of the oldest and last authentic diners in Carson. Located a few blocks south of the main intersection at Main and Carson streets, for more than 60 years, it has served priests, World War II veterans and generations of high school students. The diner has changed ownership many times over the years, but today’s customers know of only one, Rossmary Palatos. She owns the establishment with her husband, but regulars view Palatos as the only boss.

“I don’t sit in the office,’’ Palatos said. “I come here to chat with my guests, to serve their needs.”

Palatos makes herself clear, the most important thing is making sure her guests leave the restaurant satisfied. Her approach to running a business is not put in a formulaic way; it’s simple; it’s about care.

“I don’t want them to see it as a restaurant, but as if they were coming to a relative’s house,” she said.

Cindy Mairena, 26, and her three siblings are third-generation clients. Their father began eating at the restaurant as a teenager attending Carson High School. He introduced Ted’s to his parents and then to his children. Now Mairena’s one-year-old son will continue the family tradition. When it comes to Palatos, asking Mairena and her siblings if they know her comes with a straightforward response. “Claro que si, of course we know Marie,” Mairena said.

“She is very welcoming,” Mariena added.

“I’ve noticed that when we come and eat here, and it’s busy, she is always checking on everyone. ‘Is everything okay? Do you need anything?’ It all comes back to the customer service, plus the food is delicious. We have tried almost everything —it’s all great.”

The kitchen has become an oasis for

10

Ted’s Burgers Staple Fills Customer Craving in Carson

By Fabiola Esqueda, GNI Fellow and Carson Reporter

Rossmary Palatos packages a to-go bag for her customer. Photo by Fabiola Esqueda

Carsonites. Ted’s serves the diner classics; burgers, fries, and club sandwiches; then there’s the authentic Mexican dishes, huevos con chorizo, and chilaquiles. On Saturdays and Sundays, customers can ask for Menudo, a traditional Mexican soup.

The sunset diner booths and old-style tile flooring transport you back to the ’70s. With the open kitchen floor plan, you can watch the fanfavorite chili-cheese fries and the flavor-filled cheeseburger get assembled. Palatos developed a loyal customer following, some of whom began eating at the restaurant in the early ’70s. For one customer who joined the army shortly after World War II ended in 1945, Ted’s has become his daily dose of good breakfast food, which he orders at any time of the hour. The french toast is moist and delicate; the eggs are buttery and

perfectly whisked.

Palatos will deliver the same warmth and food quality. She has perfected the art of conversation and diner cuisine. You cannot help but think Palatos has developed an obsession with the atmosphere of the place. She will call you by your name, remember conversations from weeks ago and have your favorite sitting spot ready. You will think her personal life is hypothetical, but

she has managed to master both.

“I feel like the customers are my family, so I want to treat them as such,” she said.

Palatos first stepped foot in Ted’s asking for work in 2002. She got the job waitressing and spent the next 12 years cultivating relationships with the clientele. When the restaurant went up for sale in 2012, Palatos and her husband saw the opportunity to take over the reins of Ted’s.

Nine years later, Palatos is still running in and out of the kitchen with the same joy as the day she started. It’s safe to say you will feel like you made a new friend after eating at Ted’s.

“I feel happy coming to work,” she said.

“I’ve made many friends who reciprocate the same love that I give them.”

Born in Peru, Palatos migrated to the United States when she was 19-years-old. Along with one sibling, she traveled to the United States for opportunity, leaving behind eight other siblings. After arriving, she enrolled in Englishspeaking courses at El Camino College. Today, she employs 10 workers whom she ingrained the same customer service values as she picked up.

But when the coronavirus pandemic forced restaurants to close their dine-in services in March 2020, Palatos had to make difficult decisions to keep her restaurant open. While she focused on providing food to her hungry guests, her husband focused on the numbers. Thanks to her loyal customers and the drive-thru, Palatos managed to keep her diner running.

“I love everything about the job,” she said. “My favorite part is talking to my guests, attending to their needs. I want them to feel comfortable.”

Details: 310-872-3903 Location: 22000 S. Main St., Carson

[Nolan, from p. 9]

Nolan Porter

somebody making a rudimentary expression, travel on its own legs and find its way into places that you would never expect.

“That’s the story of music. It was wonderful that [it happened to] somebody out of our community.”

What Is Northern Soul?

Cross described northern soul as a genre defined by what works on certain dance floors in the North of England. The area is home to many casinos which would close during winter.

So the kids rented them for what they called “Weekenders.”

“Friday and Saturday nights were locked out, and for 24 hours they played music really

loud and danced,” he said. “Northern soul is music that worked in that environment, amongst working class interracial kids who were part of a dance scene that was particularly influential in the late ’60s to mid ’80s.”

Cross noted how strange it was that 45s [records] that were overlooked in the U.S. otherwise became huge, expensive records — because of the northern soul scene.

“By virtue of the fact that those songs became hits [on] their own, even if they never sold records, they were classics,” Cross said. “Those legendary songs had a really strong impact on popular music produced in Britain at that time.”

White working class youth, some even traveling hundreds of miles, danced to obscure Black American soul records until dawn. This scene became a way of life with its own unique

fashions and dance styles — indeed a radical alternative to British mainstream culture. Its genesis came from the south of London, SoHo and West End with the British mods who found something new and different in jazz, bluebeat and R&B. They were also enamored with the heavy beats and fast tempos coming out of Detroit and Chicago and the new sounds of Motown.

For example, Cross pointed to the song Tainted Love, by Gloria Jones. It wasn’t a hit.

But then the group Soft Cell did a cover of it.

“Massive song,” he said. “And in the case of Nolan, one of his songs, If I Could Only Be Sure, was adapted by Joy Division, [1978] which in that period of a post punk moment, are probably the most influential British group.”

Joy Division used the guitar riff from Nolan’s best known track for their song Interzone

on their debut album Unknown Pleasures. Cross posited it’s fair to say that song would have been heard in the northern soul scene and then adapted by these kids who were astute enough to hear something in Nolan’s music. And they were able to adapt a new song, which then became an important song in their genre.

“This ... is a very common story,” he said “But for me it’s a measure of the kind of importance that certain musicians have that goes further than the kind of accolades or fame or wealth that potentially we often use as the measure of who is important in terms of our music culture. It’s really about impact, and clearly this is somebody who had a much bigger impact than he had fame or wealth. That’s what’s beautiful and interesting about music.”

Details: Brian Cross, www.mocilla.com/bplus

Palos Verdes Art Center

NOCTURNE: PAINTING DEMO BY DON CROCKER

Ko-Ryu Ramen 362 W. 6th St. San Pedro 90731 310-935-2886

Don Crocker, Luminescent Palos Verdes, oil on panel, 20 x 16 in.

Details: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, 310- 541-2479

koryuramen.com Koi Ramen

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

Join us on Aug. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Norris Gallery for a painting demonstration by Don Crocker, who will share his technique for creating night scenes in oil. This event is free to the public and will be held on the last exhibition day of Don’s exhibition, Love of Place, along with The Summer Show, and Annie Appel: The Mexico Journeys – Carmelita. Space is limited. PVAC galleries open at 10 am. Register for this free event through Eventbrite.

August 19 - September 1, 2021

11

MUSIC Aug. 19

Speakeasy Tunes Chanteuse Stacey Morse and pianist Dan Spector trill tunes from the 1920s to the 2020s.

Jazz, blues and singalong tunes create an evening of sonic and phonic finger food.

Time: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19 Cost: $15 Details: www.eventbrite. com/e/speakeasy-tunes Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro Long Beach Municipal Band Long Beach Municipal Band is welcoming residents and visitors back for its two-week season of free performances at parks throughout the city.

Week 1: Strike Up the Band includes major American music genres, including movie scores, musicals, the Big Band era and pop. The second half of the program will feature renowned jazz and blues singer Barbara Morrison.

Time: All concerts start at 6:30 p.m. in Long Beach Venues: Aug. 19, Marine Stadium Park, 5255 E. Paoli Way, Aug. 20, El Dorado Park West, 2800 Studebaker Road.

Aug. 20

Tom Rigney and Flambeau The fiery, electrifying violinist/ composer, Tom Rigney, joined forces with the finest musicians on the San Francisco roots music scene to form Tom Rigney and Flambeau.

Time: Aug. 20 Cost: $107 includes a buffet dinner and dessert with the show Details: www.palosverdesperformingarts.com Venue: Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Dr., Rolling Hills Estates 10th Annual Uptown Jazz Festival It’s the 10th annual Uptown Jazz Festival, live, on Aug. 21 in the heart of Uptown at Houghton Park.

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Aug. 21

driguez; Clave Dura; and Generación Rumbera. Come to historic downtown Los Angeles to join the Cuban community and Latin music lovers throughout Southern California for a day-long celebration of Cuban music, culture and cuisine.

Time: 12 to 9 p.m. Aug. 29 Cost: $40 and up Details: www.tickeri.com/events/ cuban-american-music-festival Venue: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 N. Main St., Los Angeles

Time: TBA, Aug. 21 Cost: Free Details: www.facebook.com/rexrichardsonlb Location: Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Ave., Long Beach Fairground Follies: Magic With Joe Derry and Dennis Forel In this tribute to the traveling shows of the 1890s, Magic Castle performers Dennis Forel and Joseph Derry recreate the wonders of an 1890s county fair. They combine magic, balloonacy, storytelling and humor.

Time: 2 and 7 p.m. Aug. 21 Cost: $15 Details: Afternoon: www.eventbrite.com/e/fairground-follies; evening: www.eventbrite.com/e/ fairground-folies-2-an-evening-ofmagic Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

Aug. 22

18th Annual Gardena Jazz Festival Gardena celebrates great jazz artists through this annual event which brings the jazz community together. Visitors from near and far can enjoy a day of music featuring Eric Benét, Keiko Matsui, Norman Brown, Mike Phillips and Fernando Pullum.

Time: 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 22 Cost: $25 Details: www.eventbrite.com/gardena-jazz-festival-tickets Location: Rowley Park, 13220 S. Van Ness Ave., Gardena

Aug. 24

Long Beach Municipal Band Week 2: A Celebration Through Music a tribute to the late conductor Mr. Larry Curtis, who led the band for 27 years. Vocalist Nicole Kubis joins the band each evening following intermission.

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Venues: Aug. 24, Bluff Park, 2500 E. Ocean Blvd., Aug. 25, Los Cerritos Park, 3750 Del Mar Ave., Aug. 26, Marine Stadium Park, 5255 E. Paoli Way, Long Beach, Aug. 27, El Dorado Park West, 2800 Studebaker Road.

Details: 562-570-3150, longbeach.gov/park

Aug. 27

Open Mike Eagle and Jungle Fire Long-time KCRW host and DJ Garth Trinidad will provide an intimate evening of rhythm, rhyme and prose with friends Open Mike Eagle, Jungle Fire and TrinidadSenolia.

Time: 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 27 Cost: Free Details: www.grandperformances.org.

Venue: Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

Aug. 28

Funkalicious - Keep It Hot Concert This eclectic band continues to mesmerize audiences wherever it performs with their colorful alteregos and showmanship. With host Jammin Jay Lamont and special guest Klymaxx featuring Cheryl Cooley, this show promises to bring nothing but the heat and pure funk from start to finish.

Time: 7 p.m. Aug. 28 Cost: $25 to $40 Details: 800-595-4849 Venue: The Warner Grand Theater, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro Leimert Park Jazz Festival Join the fourth annual celebration of jazz, community and the cultural heritage of Leimert Park. The festival brings together a culturally diverse, family-friendly audience

to enjoy outstanding jazz from local and world-renowned artists including Dwight Trible, Munyungo Jackson, Sy Smith and Michael O’Neil with more to be announced.

You can also join via livestream from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Time: 2 to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 28 Cost: Free Details: www.leimertparkjazzfestival.com Venue: Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

Summer’s End Community Jazz Celebration This celebration will be hosted by KJAZZ DJ Bubba Jackson with David Benoit, Grammy-award winning jazz pianist as the headliner.

The lineup includes millennial musicians deemed to be the next generation of Jazz stars. Plus, a horn line from the Long Beach City College Jazz Studies program in a special performance.

Time: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 28 Cost: Free Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ community-jazz-celebration Venue: Scherer Park, 4600 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach

Aug. 29

Annual Cuban-American Music Festival The annual festival returns featuring Charanga Cubana All Stars; ArsenioRodriguez Project featuring music legends, Nelson Gonzalez and Johnny “Dandy” Ro-

Brian Wilson at the Terrace Theatre Come see Brian Wilson perform his greatest hits live with Al Jardine and Blondie Chapman.

Time: 8 p.m. Aug. 29 Cost: $59.50 to $135.50 Details: www.ticketmaster.com/ brian-wilson-long-beach Venue: Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach Happy Sundays Happy Sundays is a free, multivenue, one-day, music, arts and comedy festival in the Long Beach, Zaferia District. Artists include; Spirit Mother, Trap Girl, Clown Sounds, Soul Flow, She Wears Black, Jimmy Vincent, The Thingz and many others.

Time: Aug. 29 Cost: Free Details: www.happysundayslbc. com Venue: Various locations in Zaferia

Sept 2

mike watt + the secondmen San Pedro is having a night of music Sept. 2 in conjuction with the First Thursday Artwalk featuring the perfect musician to set the night off right: mike watt + the secondmen will perform live at 8 p.m. on the corner of 6th and Mesa streets after Dave Widow & the Line Up performing at 7 p.m.

Time: 7 p.m., Sept. 2 Cost: Free Venue: Corner of 6th and Mesa streets, San Pedro Intangible You Mariano LaSpisa plays vibraphone, Shannon Kauble sings.

Their repertoire includes Samba, jazz and mid-century pop classics.

Come hear them at this free First Thursday event.

Time: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Details: www.collageartculture. com Venue; Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro Sligo Rags Sligo Rags are taking the Southern California Celtic music scene by storm with a satisfying blend of Celtic, jazz and bluegrass influences.

Time: 7 to 8 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free, $5 donation suggested Details: https://tinyurl.com/eldorado-summer-concerts Venue: El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach

August 19 - September 1, 2021

Sept. 3

12

Cornet Chop Suey Named after a somewhat obscure Louis Armstrong composition, Cornet Chop Suey is best known for a variety of styles while applying its own exciting style to traditional jazz, swing, blues and “big production” numbers.

Time: 4:30 p.m. Sept. 3 Cost: $107 includes a boxed dinner and dessert with the show.

Details: www.palosverdesperformingarts.com 310-544-0403 x221 Venue: Norris Theater, 27570

Norris Center Drive, Rolling Hills Estates

Sept. 4

The Sardine, Jon Snodgrass & His Buddies Enjoy a live music show, 21 and over.

Time: 8 to 11 p.m. Sept. 4 Cost: $15 Details: www.recessops.com/ collections/tickets Venue: The Sardine, 1101 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

THEATER Aug. 25

Closely Related Keys This Wendy Graf stage-play directed by Saundra McClain is a family drama centered around New York-based African American attorney Julie Dolan. She has a career on the rise which starts to crumble when she finds out she has an Iraqi half-sister, Neyla, who shows up at her door.

Time: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays Aug. 25 through Sept. 12 Cost: $37 to $55 Details: 562-436-4610; www.ictlongbeach.org Venue: International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach

ARTS

Aug. 19

Tristan Eaton: 25 Years of Art and Design The Long Beach Museum of Art debuts the first solo museum exhibition by renowned artist, graphic designer and illustrator Tristan Eaton. All At Once presents a 25-year retrospective of the Los Angeles native’s work, gathered for the first time. Admission is half-priced on Fridays.

Enter FRIDAY50 at checkout; applicable to Fridays only.

Time: Through Oct. 3 Cost: $12 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ tristan-eaton-all-at-once Venue: Long Beach Museum of Art, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. soundpedro2021 Experience the VBODOBV - Virtual BreakOut During the OutBreak Videos — sounding videos responding in diverse and personal ways to ideas about (and experiences with) sound and aural perception. Au Naturel and Personnel now available to watch on youtube at www.agcc/ soundpedro Time: Continues online through Nov. 27.

Cost: Free Details: www.soundpedro.org

Aug. 21

Malaga Cove Art on the Lawn Show Palos Verdes Art Center presents the Malaga Cove Art on the Lawn Show. The event features paintings, jewelry, ceramics, photography, wearable art and prints from artists from the eight art groups affiliated with Palos Verdes Art Center: Artists Open Group, Pacific Arts Group, Paletteers, Palos Verdes Painters, Peninsula Artists, Photographic and Digital Artists, Third Dimension, and The Artists’ Studio.

Time: 10 am to 5 pm Aug. 21, 22 and Sept. 18 and 19 Cost: Free Details: www.pvartcenter.org/ events/malaga-cove Venue: Malaga Cove Plaza, Palos Verdes Estates on PV Drive West between Via Chico and Via Corta.

Aug. 31

Studio Soup Artist Peggy Reavey hosts this closer look at the unique ways artists move from original impulse to finished piece — how their work comes to be. Join the conversation with artists Henry Krusoe, Tidawhitney Lek and Floyd Strickland.

Time: 6:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 31 Details: Register, www.eventbrite.com/e/studio-soup

Sept. 2

First Thursday Artwalk First Thursday ArtWalk was planned to be a welcome party for LA’s Fleet Week, which has been cancelled. But live music performances by mike watt + the secondmen and Dave Widow and the Line Up at 6th and Mesa streets, food trucks and guided ArtWalk tours are still happening.

Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Details: ArtWalk Tour tickets, www.eventbrite.com/e/guidedfirst-thursday-artwalk-tour Location: Downtown San Pedro POLAHS Pixels Gallery Grand Opening The opening features an exhibit of POLAHS Digital Photography pathway student work from Iceland. Join the gallery grand opening with a ribbon cutting, live music and appetizers.

Time: 5 p.m. Sept. 2 Cost: Free Venue: Pixels Gallery, 439 W. 6th St., San Pedro

FILM

Aug. 27

2021 Universe Multicultural Film Festival This event has work from filmmakers all over the world, including original shorts, documentaries and animation.

Time: 7 a.m. Aug. 27 to 10 a.m.

Aug. 29 Cost: $8 to $25 Details: https://tinyurl.com/umcfilm-fest Venue: LOTH RHCC Community Center, 735 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates

COMMUNITY Aug. 28

The Historic Fight for Fair Housing Join a Zoom panel discussion presented by The Compton 125 Historical Society, Beyond Image Productions and co-sponsored by the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at CSU Dominguez Hills. The zoom address will be emailed to you before the event.

Time: 10 a.m. Aug. 28 Details: www.forms.gle/CdJ2ySa8ZRA5tyQU6 Screen Printing with Trey Artist Luis-Quintero, also known as Trey, will lead this one-day screen-printing workshop teaching participants how to silk screen designs onto t-shirts and tote bags. Attendees will be given one tote bag each, and are encouraged to bring other articles of clothing to silkscreen. Capacity is limited to 20 people.

Time: 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 28 Cost: $5 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ screen-printing-workshop-withtrey

Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

Aug. 31

LA Harbor Peace Week 2021 A week of activities in San Pedro as an alternative to the normalization of war during the U.S. military’s “LA Fleet Week.”

Instead, we promote the solutions of peace in the world and in our towns.

Time: Aug. 31 through Sept. 6.

Cost: Free Details: 310-971-8280; sojournerrb@yahoo.com Locations: Various Peace Week kick off press conference/MFS “Leaving Afghanistan: War was never the answer.”

Time: 4 to 5 p.m. Aug. 31 Location: 5th St. and Centre St., with a march to the U.S.S Iowa afterward.

Sept. 3

Festival Of Sail at the LA Waterfront The 3-day 2021 Festival of Sail in San Pedro during Labor Day Weekend will have nonprofits, institutions, agencies and industries showcasing their opportunities for youth education, careers and community involvement. The festival will include Harbor education sails, sunset sails, free deck tours and booth activities. Time: 9 to 6 p.m.

Sept. 3 to 6 Cost: $20 to $75 Details: 310-833-6055; www.info@lamitopsail.org Venue: Downtown Harbor, 504 S. Harbor Blvd. San Pedro

[Recall, from p. 8]

Recall

order to fire ‘bad’ teachers, estimating they make up somewhere between 5% and 7% of the California public school faculty of about 300,000,” a figure that comes out of thin air.

The state of emergency is a new Trumpian twist, but “Californians have faced these claims and threats before,” Rep. Alan Lowenthal (DLong Beach) told Random Lengths News. “Gov. Schwarzenegger threatened the same thing years ago, also with no evidence or basis.” At that time, Lowenthal chaired the Senate Education Committee, and Arnold Schwarzenegger could not produce a single example. “I think it is ridiculous,” Lowenthal said. “Larry Elder would be a threat to many of the foundational protections and policies that have taken decades to put in place in our state.”

Elder and the Politics of White Grievance

But neither COVID-19 nor climate change nor education is the reason Elder is leading the GOP pack. As Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda, explained in mid-July, it’s because of his denial of systemic racism.

“He says Black people are ‘more racist’ than whites,” Guerroro wrote, adding: White grievance politics were once the purview of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, as when David Duke claimed “the white man” was the real “second class citizen in America today.” Now, thanks in no small part to Elder and his proteges, the delusion of rampant reverse racism

is mainstream in Republican politics and Fox News.

Not only did Elder mentor Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policies, he also mentored Breitbart editor-inchief Alex Marlow — both while they were still high-school students. “He invited Miller on as a guest ‘almost whenever he wanted,’ amounting to dozens of times,” Guerrero wrote. Marlow reached out to Elder as a result of hearing Miller, and became an intern — the stepping stone that led him to Breitbart.

Elder remained engaged with Miller long after that, Guerrero noted: While Miller worked for the Trump campaign, Elder told him to make sure that Trump claimed illegal immigration harmed “unskilled, inner city mostly Black and brown workers.” He told him to read up on Hillary Clinton’s “treatment of her husband’s accusers” months before Trump held a news conference featuring Bill Clinton’s sexual assault accusers to distract from Trump’s “grab ‘em by the pussy” scandal.

In short, Elder is the perfect embodiment of the Trumpist forces behind the recall. Recall proponents are in denial about that as well. They even filed a lawsuit trying to strike Newsom’s characterization of the recall from the voter guide, specifically language calling it “an attempt by national Republicans and Trump supporters to force an election and grab power in California.”

But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl rejected the lawsuit. “The Court finds there is nothing false or misleading about describing the recall effort’s leaders as Trump supporters,” Earl wrote.

[See Recall, p. 15]

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

August 19 - September 1, 2021

13

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Please respond by email to Richard Foss: richa r d@c o l l a g e a r t c u l t u r e . com or George Woytovich: george@collageartculture.com RLNews is looking for freelance food and music writers who are knowledgeable about San Pedro and Long Beach area restaurants, culture and music scenes. Experienced writers preferred, but will consider aspiring bloggers. We are looking for writers who have a curiosity for a wide range of cuisines or music in the greater LA / Long Beach Harbor Area.

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PLEASE HELP!

The animals at the Harbor Animal Shelter have ongoing need for used blankets, comforters, pet beds.* Drop off at Harbor Animal Shelter 957 N. Gaffey St.,San Pedro • 888-452-7381, x 143 PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET! *In any condition. We will wash and mend.

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ACROSS

1 Home planet of TV’s ALF 7 Sex ed subj.

10 Tests for college credit, briefly 13 Constellation whose name means “eagle” 14 “The Andy Griffith Show” kid 15 “High School Musical” star Efron 16 Keeps going and going 17 Quite skilled 19 Tavern gambling game, in some states 21 One more than zwei 22 It may get tacked on 23 Features erroneously added to male cows in some cartoons 25 Streaming device maker 29 More encrusted 32 JFK flier, once 33 Smokey Robinson song that was covered by The Jackson 5 36 Veterans will mention it’s not their first 37 Offensive or defensive player 38 Mature, legally 42 Taco Bell taco variety with a unique shell 45 Ozone depleter, for short 48 Strengthen 49 Subway map dot 50 Reason for excommunication 52 “___ appetit!”

54 Nastase of tennis 55 Started to stall, like a bad Internet connection 62 Chicano rock band with the apt debut album “How Will the Wolf Survive?”

64 ___ Creed (church recitation) 65 Singer Kamoze with the 1994 hit “Here Comes the Hotstepper” 66 Venti, e.g.

67 “Dollface” actress Povitsky 68 Part of MS-DOS (abbr.)

69 Night before 70 Create a new draft of

DOWN

1 Sports announcer Albert 2 Prefix for lateral 3 Ilsa ___ (“Casablanca” character) 4 ___-en-scene (stage setting) 5 Icy 6 Ex-ballplayer who wrote “Juiced” 7 Get a glimpse of 8 Gauzy, like a light dress 9 “No Sudden Move” actor Benicio ___ Toro 10 Sky blue hues 11 Indianapolis five 12 Flaky metamorphic rock that sometimes gets laughs in high school geology 14 Plastic ___ Band 18 Like the length and width of most crossword grids 20 Description for some conditioners

24 “Cats rule, dogs ___” (“Homeward Bound” line) 25 1980s D.C. monogram 26 “Well, well, well!”

27 Floored, as a boxer 28 Well-trodden 30 1977 Burton role in “Roots” 31 Not certain 34 Pillages 35 Crafts that are also called UAPs (as of 2021 news) 39 Do something 40 Marshmallow residue 41 Prescience of a sort 43 They Might Be Giants title character who “proudly stands at the rainbow’s end” 44 Reverend known for confusing initial letters 45 Restaurant chain with a green and red logo 46 Arson, e.g.

47 Tense situation 51 Fish sometimes wrapped in rice 53 Staticky output 56 Move like lava 57 Cat-loving poet’s initials 58 “Great White North” sketch show 59 City north of Utah Lake 60 Wallet stuffers 61 “OK, now where ___ we?”

63 Sugary suffix

[Recall, from p. 13]

Recall Risks

It’s not just the leaders, either. “They submitted a little over 2.1 million signatures. According to their own numbers, 64% of those signatories are Republicans, and only 9% are Democrats.”

Democratic consultant Garry South told Random Lengths. “Is that the bipartisan revolt?” The imbalance is even more striking given that California Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 2 to 1: 46.5% vs. 24.1%.

For perspective, “We didn’t have any recalls of governors that qualified for the ballot in the 92 years between the recall provision being installed in the constitution in 1911 and Gray Davis’s recall 2003,” South noted. ”Ninety-two years went by without a recall, and two of the last [three] Democratic governors have been subject to recalls. And there’s only been four gubernatorial recalls in the history of the entire United States of America!” he said. “There’s something amiss here…. You have to have some mechanism that assures that this is not just simply being used as a plaything by the minority party.”

Recall reform

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Leave No Soldier

prove their loyalty and allegiance than by willing to give their lives in defense of the Constitution of the United States?” Vivar asked rhetorically.

Ruhman said that many non-citizen veterans are lied to and led to believe they will become citizens just by enlisting.

“Later in life [they] find out that’s not the case, when immigration puts a hold on them when they’re trying to get out of jail and go home,” Ruhman said.

When veterans are deported, it’s usually due to a criminal offense, sometimes minor, sometimes not.

“Most of the criminal offenses that get them deported are results of their military training,” Vivar said.

Vivar said that many who enter the military are young — 18, 19 or even 17 years old.

“They’re trained very aggressively by the best military training in the world to be aggressive, to be violent,” Vivar said. “They’re taught to go kill.”

Vivar said there is no decompression process or assessment into how they can integrate back into civilian life. Often this leads veterans to self-medicate via drugs and alcohol or domestic violence.

When non-citizens are charged with crimes, they face a double jeopardy of sorts — they can potentially face jail time or a fine and be deported afterwards.

“You’ve done your time, you paid your fine,” Vivar said. “But now you’re put into immigration proceedings, you have legal permanent residence revoked, and exiled to a country that even though you were born in, you in most cases don’t even remember because you left that country at a very young age.”

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[Soldier, from p. 4]

QUICK RESPONSE TIME!

accusers,” Newman explained. “And you think about a recall as kind of an indictment by ballot, it seemed reasonable to me that part of the recall should be the ability to make that case to the people signing it, ‘I’m not deserving of what is really the ultimate punishment electorally.”’

The recall process isn’t the only thing that’s broken. The initiative was implemented to be a check against special interest power — specifically the Southern Pacific Railroad. But it’s long since become exactly the opposite. South puts it well: “These ballot measure campaigns have become a roller derby for special interests.”

Fixing the initiative process requires more care. But if we’re going to think about fixing the recall — as a majority of Californians think we should — it would make sense to reform the initiative process at the same time. These were major innovations 100 years ago. It only makes sense to take stock, see what’s worked and what hasn’t, and refine the process for the next 100 years. If we can survive the current recall, there could be no better time to act.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

South is far from alone in seeing something amiss. There’s strong support for the recall process itself, but also for significant improvements, according to a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. “Californians support the idea of setting the bar higher for how a recall qualifies,” PPIC President Mark Baldassari told Random Lengths News, with majority support for two proposals in particular. First, the “idea that we increase the number of signatures that need to be gathered,” (25% vs. the current 12%), and second, “They think that somebody should be recalled when based on something illegal or unethical,” as is the case in most other states. A third idea with majority support was holding a runoff election between the top two replacement candidates if no candidate receives an initial majority.

But there are other ideas worth considering as well, and in a blog post about the poll Baldassari suggested that, “creating a bipartisan commission that offers policy recommendations for California voters to consider on the November 2022 statewide ballot would be a worthwhile endeavor.”

South has a suggestion that takes dead aim at the hijacking he highlighted.

“You put a distributive partisan requirement into the signatures,” he said. Require that a decent percentage of signatures — say 20 or 25% — come from the same party as the officeholder being recalled. There’s already a requirement for geographic diversity. “You can’t go into one big county like LA County and collect all the signatures there,” he noted. “The petition must include signatures from each of at least five counties in the state equal in number to 1% of the last vote for that office.”

But there are even easier fixes that don’t require changing California’s constitution through the initiative process, they can be done through changes in state law. State Senator Josh Newman has two bills to do just that. He’s unique in California history. He lost a recall election in 2018, replaced by a candidate who got almost 16,000 fewer votes than him, whom he then defeated in the next

regular election in 2020.

The first bill, Senate Bill 660, would do away with paying signature gatherers on a per-signature basis — a reform that Oregon and several other states have already adopted. With per signature payment, “People doing this work are fully incentivized to find the path of least resistance to get the most maximum number of signatures as quickly as possible,” Newman told Random Lengths.

“That really struck me as sort of a perversion of the original intent.” With the recall or the initiative, “You want to do these things in the spirit of their original intent and if it’s really just about money, it tends not to work that way,” he said.

The bill has already passed the Senate and is headed for a vote in the Assembly in the next two weeks. He believes it’s likely to be signed — though the recall results might complicate things.

His second bill, SB 663, has been delayed and turned into a twoyear bill. “This bill will have no bearing on the current recall of the governor but that got lost in the noise very quickly,” Newman said.

It would provide the recall target with an opportunity to contact recall signers and ensure they actually supported the petition they’d signed.

“The basic principle to me was in the American system of justice is really about having the opportunity to face your

15

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August 19 - September 1, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant